METALLIC SULPHURETS. 113 



In my youth I made two experiments, which might have Dangerous ex- 

 coft me very dear. I wifhed to convert mercury into cinna- P Iofion8 » y at ~ 

 bar in the dry way, as I had done by employing the oxides in cinnabar with 

 the humid way. Four ounces of corrofive muriate, and four ° xl ? ed mercur y» 

 ounces of red oxide, triturated with fulphur, were expofed tb 

 the fire, each mixture in a feparate retort. In lefs than half 

 an hour, two explofions took place, which were heard through- 

 out the extenfive works of La Salpetriere. My brother, who 

 conducted the firit experiment, being fuddenly overwhelmed 

 with a thick fmoke of fublimate, had nearly loll his life, and 

 his lungs were long afterwards difordered. The refult of my 

 operation was, that the dome of the furnace was thrown into 

 the air, whilft the door of the afli-pit was mattered againfl a 

 wall, and narrowly efcaped ftriking me in the ftomach. 



The powder which arofe from the detonation of the oxide 

 mixed with fulphur, according to the method of Bayen, is 

 cinnabar of a violet-red colour. 



The aethiops, prepared with the aid of fire, reddens fpon- 

 taneoufly in courfe of time, in the oxiding veffels. 



Mercury poured into a retort with melted fulphur always On the inflam- 

 occafions an inflammation ; but if both have been previoufly matlon of the 

 heated, the union takes place, and the aethiops affords cinna- ce f s# 

 bar without flame. As to that which accompanies the procefs 

 ufed by the Dutch, it deferves to be better examined than has 

 hitherto been done. 



Hydro-fulphurated water, poured gradually into a folution Corrofive fuWI- 

 of fublimate, decompofes it entirely. The precipitate is mild mate contains 

 muriate, and muriatic acid is difengaged. This refult proves, m0 re acid than 

 that there is not only more oxigen in the oxide of fublimate, the mili muri_ 

 but alfo, as Berthollet has remarked, more marine acid. If, a 

 on the contrary, we pour the folution of fublimate into the Remarkable 

 hydro-fulphurated water, the whole becomes precipitated in fa ^* 

 the form of aethiops, and the muriatic acid remains alone. 



The name offzveet muriate brings to my recollection a fact Anecdote, to 



recorded by Lemery in the Memoirs of the Academy. He ™ ofmHd 



knew an alchemift, who eat the mild muriate like bread ; he muriate as a 



has feen him fwallow four ounces at a time, and he aflured ? e lcine * 



It ivas not toe 



him that he took from time to time a like dofe, to'purify his muriate, W.N. 

 blood, as he faid. This anecdote, the authenticity of which 

 cannot be fufpected, induces me to afk what we are to think 

 of the 1 8 and 24- grains of mercurius dulcis which phyticians 

 Vol. I. — February. I are 



